Travel blog: I found myself at gunpoint on my bicycle

I spent 10 days in 2012 guiding a group of 80 women for 450 km across three countries in South America.

After a long plane journey, we arrived in the incredible Panama City. It’s hard to arrive in a new country without preconceptions, so while the immaculate high-rise skyline was a surprise, with it came a modern and comfortable hotel surrounded by its own army of porters ready to help with our small mountain of luggage.

As our group of 80 weary riders filed into the hotel, my eye was caught by a man walking in the opposite direction carrying a rucksack from which dangled a lady’s cycling helmet. Giving little thought to what would happen when I caught up with him, I hopped onto my bike to give chase. The man quickly saw me and started to run. In no time I was alongside, but before I had a chance to grab at the bag, both the thief and I spun towards the hotel and the angry voice that was now bellowing at us. My Spanish is patchy, but the rifle trained squarely at us spoke very eloquently indeed. I wasn’t confident that a shot fired by the armed security guard would be anywhere near accurate, and as I exchanged a momentary glance with the thief, it seemed he agreed because quick as a flash he dropped the bag and disappeared down an alleyway.

I picked up the bag and returned to reception as casually as I could. It was only then that we realised many bags had gone missing. It quickly transpired the hotel had no staff to bring bags into the reception.

It was an unfortunate start to the trip. In a decade of leading cycle trips across the world, covering many thousands of miles from Malawi to Vietnam, I have always found the cycling part of the trip to be by far the easiest.

Alistair Mackenzie

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